Abstract
Inequalities in alcohol-related health harms have been repeatedly identified. However, the socioeconomic distribution of alcohol-related violence (violence committed by a person under the influence of alcohol)–and of subtypes such as alcohol-related domestic violence–remains under-examined. To examine this, data are drawn from nationally representative victimisation survey, the Crime Survey for England and Wales, from years 2013/14 to 2017/18. Socioeconomic status specific incidence and prevalence rates for alcohol-related violence (including subtypes domestic, stranger, and acquaintance violence) were created. Binomial logistic regressions were performed to test whether the likelihood of experiencing these incidents was affected by socioeconomic status when controlling for a range of pre-established risk factors associated with violence victimisation. Findings generally show lower socioeconomic groups experience higher prevalence rates of alcohol-related violence overall, and higher incidence and prevalence rates for alcohol-related domestic and acquaintance violence. Binomial logistic regression results show that the likelihood of experiencing these types of violence is affected by a person’s socioeconomic status–even when other risk factors known to be associated with violence are held constant. Along with action to address environmental and economic drivers of socioeconomic inequality, provision of publicly funded domestic violence services should be improved, and alcohol pricing and availability interventions should be investigated for their potential to disproportionately benefit lower socioeconomic groups.
Highlights
“Inequalities are a matter of life and death, of health and sickness, of well-being and misery” [1 p. 16
This study combines five waves of data drawn from the Crime Survey for England and Wales for years 2013/14 to 2017/18 [36,37,38,39,40] employing a cross-sectional between-subjects design to: a. create and compare prevalence rates and incidence rates of alcohol-related violence overall, as well as alcohol-related domestic, stranger and acquaintance violence, for different socioeconomic groups, and; b. perform binomial logistic regression analyses to confirm the effect of a range of other risk factors associated with violence on any relationship identified
Incidence rates were highest for the lowest socioeconomic group in two measures, with the most dramatic disparity seen between the incidence rates of alcohol-related domestic violence when measuring socioeconomic status through housing tenure; the lowest group had an incidence rate more than 14 times as high as the highest group
Summary
“Inequalities are a matter of life and death, of health and sickness, of well-being and misery” [1 p. 16]. People in lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to be victims of violence overall [14, 15] This was demonstrated recently in analysis of data from the British Crime Survey ( CSEW) between 2002/03 and 2007/08 showing lower household income to increase risk of violent victimisation [16]. A person’s SES could have diverse relationships with these different forms of violence This is supported by research examining a nationally representative survey on offending behaviour in England and Wales which found "favoring drinking heavily in pub settings” to be associated with both alcoholrelated violence perpetration and lower SES [31 p.
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